How Do You Follow Hot Smoke and Sassafras?

Bubble Puppy needed a follow-up to “Hot Smoke and Sassafras.” The band believed International Artists (I.A.) would opt for another rocking record like “Hot Smoke” and favored our psychedelic song “Beginning.”  I.A. had other ideas. Our producer, Ray Rush, said he wanted to change our formula. What? How can you have a “formula” with just one release? 

Ray wanted to surprise the public with a mellow, slower Bubble Puppy song like “If I Had a Reason.“ How Ray convinced us to release “If I Had a Reason” instead of "Beginning” remains a mystery. It was not suitable for our second single. I think the band knew it but didn’t have enough power at that point in our careers to override Ray, so in the end, I.A. released “If I Had a Reason.” 

Here’s a YouTube link to “If I Had a Reason”:

The Bubble Puppy - If I Had A Reason (1969)

Despite our misgivings, the band hoped that “If I Had a Reason” would be well received because a second single was almost guaranteed decent airplay in the 1960s. Sadly, however, it charted in the low 90s on Billboard Magazine's Hot 100 for a few weeks and then disappeared. Maybe the gangsters contributed to the song's poor performance because they hadn’t forgotten we refused to accept their demands for “Payola.” (See Bubble Puppy Bites “Hot Smoke and Sassafras” for more on the gangsters)

As disappointing as the radio action was, our live shows were on fire! The concert promoters of the late 1960s were in love with The Bubble Puppy, and Concerts West, the most significant concert promotion company in the late 1960s, was one of them! 

Thanks to Concerts West, we opened for the Chambers Brothers at the Sam Houston Coliseum in 1969, our first show outside of our circuit of small Texas clubs. At the time, the Chambers Brothers had a smash hit with “Time Has Come Today.” When we opened the show, I had no monitors at my drumset! All I could hear was myself and the bass player. It was a vast stage, so I played loudly and was exhausted after the show. 

We also opened for Canned Heat in San Antonio, who had a monster hit with “On the Road Again.” The members of Canned Heat were not very friendly, which was a new phenomenon for us because most headlining bands liked to hang out with their opening act. Later, we found out they had a huge heroin problem, which kept them from socializing. 

Janis Joplin had us open for her at the Sam Houston Coliseum, and after the show, Janis and her band partied at Bubble Puppy’s house. That party was legendary, and to this day, I hear friends talk about how great it was. We drank Southern Comfort with Janis, and she shared thoughts about her upcoming LP with the Full Tilt Boogie Band. Janis was happy because she had written more songs for that LP and would receive more royalties than when she was with her previous band in San Francisco, “Big Brother and The Holding Company.” 

Concerts West kept us busy in 1969! We opened for Spirit numerous times. Spirit’s drummer was the guitar player's dad! The dad’s drum solo was excellent. He started by playing the drums, left the drums, played on the metal drum hardware, and ended his solo on his knees, playing rudiments on the stage floor.  

One of our gigs with Spirit was in San Antonio at the now-legendary Pussycat Club. Because of our busy touring schedule, I was hospitalized for exhaustion following the show! Fortunately, our next gig was not for a few days, so I stayed at a friend's house in San Antonio after I was released from the hospital until I got better. 

Later, in 1969, we opened for the Jefferson Starship in Dallas. After they finished, we hoped to talk and hang out with them, but they ignored us when they left the stage. Not a word. Maybe they hated each other and couldn’t wait to return to the dressing room. Who knows?

Next, we opened for the Grassroots. They were friendly. However, while flying on a plane with the Grassroots, we were surprised to learn that they weren’t a “real band! The “band” consisted of one main guy backed up by studio musicians. We’d never heard of such a thing. 

One of my favorite Bubble Puppy shows was Keith Emerson (later of Emerson Lake and Palmer) opening for us! This was in Chicago, Illinois, at the Kinetic Playground in 1969. It was a fantastic, modern psychedelic club with a great PA. We were scheduled to play the club on Saturday, so we went there on Friday to see Buddy Rich open for The Who. Backstage before the show, I was lucky enough to stand behind Buddy Rich and Keith Moon while they competed with one another to see who had the smoothest single-stroke roll. 

A huge crowd turned out to see us at the Kinetic Playground. “Hot Smoke” was still number one on Chicago’s WLS radio, and during our set, I received a standing ovation for my drum solo.

 

That night, Keith Emerson fronted his band on his Hammond B3 organ. I remember that he climbed on top of his keyboard and rocked it back and forth so that it “crawled” across the stage. Those B3 organs were heavy and fragile, so making it walk was difficult. It was mighty impressive to my 17-year-old mind to have someone as famous as Keith Emerson open for The Bubble Puppy!.

We were so popular in 1969 that Bob Seger System once opened for us! We were booked at a high school assembly concert at 11 a.m. in Detroit. It was a weird booking!  Who books Bob Seger and Bubble Puppy to play in a gym at 11 a.m.? The school administrators must have been stoners! The entire high school attended, and the kids loved the show and appreciated how lucky they were to hear two great bands at school!

We opened the most shows for Steppenwolf and played with them nationwide. People still tell me they saw us and Steppenwolf in El Paso, Texas, and that the show was so good that it “changed their lives.” That's pretty high praise for our live show. What I remember about the show is that the public address system broke down during our set.

Here’s a little info on the state of sound systems in 1969. Those old PAs were primitive and unreliable. Today’s PAs have great monitors; you can hear yourself and the other band members far from you on the stage. That wasn’t always the case in the 1960s, however. PAs would often break down during your set, and fixing the problem usually took quite a while. 

Here are more challenges of being an opening act in 1969. The headliner always wanted to be louder than the opening band because, to the audience, louder was better. Therefore, the headliner's sound crew would turn down the main P.A. during the opening band’s set. Also, the headliner’s lighting crew would only let the opening band use half the lighting system, so opening acts often played in semi-darkness. 

Frequently, the headliner would sound check so late that the opening band would not get a sound check. But the opening band couldn’t leave because it MIGHT get one! So, the opening band had to hang around until the headliner was finished, hoping it would get a sound check.

Finally, the opener had to start at 8:00 p.m., leaving little time to get dinner, return to the hotel, change, and return to the venue. All this waiting and rushing around made for challenging performances! Thankfully, Bubble Puppy played so often under these conditions that we could rise above things and put on a great show.

Next up, we release our 3rd single and change producers.